Monday, December 28, 2009

On the school of tolerance and anger…

A certain knavish troll welcomed this bitch back from my cyber vacation with an email asking…

1. Why this bitch is so intolerant when Democrats are supposed to be tolerant?

&

2. Why a bitch is so angry when Democrats are supposed to be peaceful?

Pause…consider…continue.

Just for form a bitch must point out to my troll that all black people aren’t Democrats, I have a job, I don’t have any children so I certainly don’t have ten of 'em up in a one room apartment, I’m not on public assistance (nothing wrong with that, by the damned way) and black people aren’t the only people who need public assistance, I’ve never been incarcerated…umm, oh yeah…and a bitch was born in Minnesota so I am “home”, motherfucker.

Sigh.

Do y’all have a playbook for this shit…I’m just curious because you’re predictable as a motherfucker.

Blink.

Now, normally a bitch would not answer the questions of a knave…but since non-knavish folks have also asked these questions and I’ve been meaning to revisit them, I’m going to make an exception.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Why this bitch is so intolerant when Democrats are supposed to be tolerant?

A bitch is not a Democrat.

Gasp!

I’m not.

I’m a liberal who often votes for Democrats…and there is a difference.

The world needs both…party loyalists and liberals. Lose one – like Republicans who strayed far away from fiscal conservatism in order to seduce social value voters in a quest for power at any cost– and you may just lose your soul.

Lose your soul – like Republicans whom, had they not strayed far away from fiscal conservatism in order to seduce social value voters in a quest for power at any cost, would be cashing in on Democratic fuck ups right now – and you’ll become a political party in name only, minus any workable definition or policy and led by folksy media creations lacking intellect, philosophy and integrity.

Blink.

I reject the school of tolerance.

A body tolerates a stench…and only for as long as it has to.

Me and mine are not something to “tolerate” nor do I wish to “tolerate” others.

I seek to understand and, if that understanding reveals extreme rancidity, I do not tolerate it.

The school of tolerance is kryptonite to true social change…so yes; I reject the hell out of it.

Now to a question of my own – why the fuck do people who do not know liberals and do not listen to liberals always try to define that which they do not know or listen to or even have a workable understand of?

***cue crickets***

Onward!

Why a bitch is so angry when Democrats are supposed to be peaceful?

Refer to my first answer regarding that Democrat thing.

As for anger and peace…now that’s a great question!

Anger is a normal and healthy emotion that I long suppressed because society does not suffer an angry black woman to live long and prosper. But then I realized that society wasn’t taking shit seriously because too many folks were attempting to discuss very important shit sans emotion. ‘Tis freakish to observe – passionate people dispassionately debating shit like basic civil rights, oppression and injustice as if it is all just abstract theory and people’s lives aren’t hanging in the balance. And the response to such freakish debates is perfectly understandable – people response in kind, casually pondering these life-in-balance things much like one ponders what movie to see because the discussion has been presented as not all that important or…wait for it…folks would be angry about it.

Well I am worked up about reproductive justice. I am incapable of separating my emotions from the movement. I see the faces of people I know and care about…I feel the weight of the impact policy has on people’s lives and bodies and prospects…and I get angry or joyful or depressed or inspired.

I feel…because there’s nothing abstract or distant about this shit.

Just because I get angry doesn’t mean I become incapable of functioning. That’s rage and rage can force an activist into an emotional spin that gets you nowhere and gets you there fast.

As much as anger must be allowed a public appearance, folks must also not settle for public displays of anger or full on fits of rage.

That’s why I practice the fine art of bitchitude!

I am an activist who blogs…I take my values out of storage and live them…and I blog about that shit so that folks know that first you get angry, then you get wise and then you go do something about the shit that you got angry and wise about.

In conclusion…

People who don't know any Democrats and can not accurately name a single plank of the Democratic Party's platform should not attempt to define Democrats.

Anger is different from rage and a bitch didn't sign a School of Tolerance Agreement for All Black People Who Pledge to Not Be Angry Even When Confronted with Shit the Makes Normal People Angry As Hell document at the last Official Meeting of Black Folk - Maintaining the Monolith conference.

A fool tolerates a stench and never cleans up the stankified bullshit that’s causing the stink.

An activist organizes the masses to remove the bull from the room it’s been shitting in.

24 comments:

Good post AB!I too reject the school of "tolerance." Always have and always will for the same reasons you stated. It blow some liberal granola chewer's minds when I tell them to stick their "tolerance" BS up their intolerable asses, but then, who cares?Always nice to be here.SH

a bitch didn't sign a School of Tolerance Agreement for All Black People Who Pledge to Not Be Angry Even When Confronted with Shit the Makes Normal People Angry As Hell document at the last Official Meeting of Black Folk - Maintaining the Monolith conference.

As always, you have given me something more to think about - the difference between tolerance and understanding. Thank-you!

Oh, and thanks for the mail you sent - you could have just told me where to go to get them. I have a Planned Parenthood not far from my home, but also have private health insurance, and haven't gone there since I was a teen.

My father sat me down once, when I was about 10, and he said (I approximate, for memory is faulty): "Understand, son, that your people have been Democrats ever since they emancipated the rednecks. But we are not Democrats for that reason. We are Democrats because the Peace and Freedom Party doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever beating that pig-***ker Reagan.

1. The "aren't you liberals supposed to be tolerant" comment sounds so much to me like people of white privilege getting mad about poc calling them "racist".

"You're a racist for playing the race card and calling me out on my racism".

So sick of hateful turds telling people (particularly those who they regularly step and shat on) how to be meek, accepting, and tolerant. This is my first time on the blog, and I'm immensely pleased. Reader for life on post one. I truly <3 you for this!

Best line?"The school of tolerance is kryptonite to true social change…so yes; I reject the hell out of it."No truer organizing words have ever been spoken . . . er, typed.

"Tolerance" certainly isn't this positive feel good attribute that some make it out to be. "Tolerance can function as a substitute for or as a supplement to formal liberal equality or liberty; it can also overtly block the pursuit of substantive equality and freedom." From Karen Brown's Regulating Aversion. As long as people are "tolerant", true equality gets put on the back burner.

I get sooooooooooooooo irritated when people assume that I vote Democratic simply because I'm black; hell, even the family does it at times. Like I'm supposed to have a Democratic Party gene in the DNA or something...please.

On most issues I'm liberal, on some I'm libertarian (e.g. I am pro drug legalization)...under some circumstances to do like smaller government (but government should also be effective.)

I've voted for Dems, Greens, and even a Republican occasionally (Repubs in Illinois are somewhat reasonable, for the most part anyway).